I went to the Get Motivated Seminar today with a bunch of friends from Coldwell Banker.

It was the first time I have had the privilege to visit our new convention center, the BOk Center and I have to say I was overall very impressed even though I would make a few changes if I were queen of the world.

I had to get over my first impression that it looked like the space ship from Lost in Space. Someone mentioned that it reminded her of a big roll of duck tape.

Nevertheless, it is a beautiful new facility and a tribute to our city for getting the thing built. Downtown Tulsa has needed something to get it jump started and this just might be what we needed.

OK, OK -- traffic was gridlocked at 6:30 am because 18,000 people converged on downtown Tulsa at the same time. What else?

The building itself is a work of art. People are coming to Tulsa just to see the outside of it, and I think that's fantastic.

The restroom lines were insane, but, at most events, people will go at different times. Events with timed breaks are rare.

There were many emergency exits, with signs pointing to the closest one, but this made it very hard to find the main exit/entrance.

The upper section of seating is a death trap. The stairs are too steep, their aren't enough hand rails, and the plexiglass barriers to keep people from falling off into the entrance "tunnels" are too short. I bet it is less than a year before we have our first fatality at a show that serves beer.

Posted by John almost 10 years ago

I have to agree with you about the peanut gallery. It was pretty scary up there. Most of us had to grab onto total strangers or the back of their seats in order to steady ourselves when trying to get through to our own seats. It really is pretty scary, especially if you are a little bit on the hefty side. If they had only made the concrete walkways just two inches wider it would have made such a huge difference.

[I remember how excited my sister was when she was in sixth grade and the school took her class to the matinee at the Metropolitan Opera in New York City. Some kid fell out of one of the balconies and that was the highlight of the afternoon. I don't think the kid was hurt.]

The design and all is great! I am glad Tulsa finally has something like this to generate revenue and create jobs.

I absolutely agree with the nosebleed section. After I attended the 'Get Motivated' seminar, I was literally sick for about 2 days. With nausea, dizziness, etc. I sat in the next row up from where the plexiglass is located and I promise you everytime I stood up, I felt like I was going to fall out of an airplane.

The concession lines were extremely long and the temperature in the building itself was mildy warm.

However, it is all trial and error. Hopefully, the errors will be corrected.

I guess there's a reason they call it the nose-bleed section. I think it is dangerous up there! They can correct the concession line issues, but I am really not sure what they can do about the pitch of those seats and the narrowness of the rows.

I was at the opening Eagles show on the upper deck. Seats were right by the entrance and on the aisle. Literally just a few steps from the entrance. Had a great times. My next event was Bruce Springsteen. The floor was standing only and I had a great time and good view. Last night, I was very excited while driving from arkansas to see fleetwood mac. We took 6 people and had purchased seats in the upper deck to save move. This time my seats were not on the asile and not near the entrance. After scaling surely the steepest stairs I'd ever been on I was confronted with my row. At first I was confused. Everyone was sitting and I saw no way to get to my seat. Everyone on the row looked our way. I noticed the reluctance to stand. Finally they started and you could see the fear on there faces. It is physically impossible to slide in with people sitting. Everyone must stand up to allow a patron to pass. And they must lean back. I notice how terrified they looked after standing up to allow passage. Then I notice how terrified I was trying to balance and squeeze past face to face with the wobbling, standing others.. When I got to my seat I turned around toward the stage and almost freaked. I looked down, a bad move. It was like being on a balance beam 50 feet in the air with no net. I quickly got frightend And I not afriad of heights. I was shaking as I slipped into my seat. I couldn't sit straight. My size twelves wouldn't fit in the leg room. I eventually had to cross my legs, feet stuff back up under my seat. That made the falling worst. Instant fear of falling is the best way I could describe. Then I noticed the sweat wasn't from fear. It was from the high tempature up there. I starting sweating after the walk and climb combined with my fear of death. It got worst. Everyone squeezed in and there we were cramped, stuffed, squeezed into a lofty perch. In the middle of the row, in a HOT environment. I noticed that after the show started quite a few people went down and never came back. I looked around and after an hour I could see at least 1/4 to 1/5 of the people had left. I last one hour and was about to pass out. I'm younger than Stevie Nicks but not by much. My blood pressure from the fear of dying continued to climb. Me, my crew, the people next to me were all hot, cramped and terrified. I polled the crew about going down to air and safety and they all wanted to exit. The climb down was very scary. My mother in law is 60. She was shaking so bad we had to hold her with one arm as we held on for our lives to people and chair backs. Once down it was apparent the effect it had on us wasn't going to go away quickly. It was similar to a near death experience. Not kidding. I'm an intelligent person. I knew that I wouldn't just fall out of my seat. But I also recognized the dangers. We tried to stand around to watch but security ran us off. Went down stairs to stand in the back and got ran off over and over. So we left. I spent the next 1 1/2 back to arkansas listening to stories of fear, visions of death. Had to stop to let one of the group gain there composure. I apologized for buying the tickets 10 times. The effects didn't stop after leaving the venue. We all felt roasted. It was 50 degrees outside and our car windows were cracked. This morning I'm still jittery. It's like if you got punched you would still be sore the next day. It will take me a day or to get over it. And it will take me longer to apologize to everyone. When you face death it takes a while to overcome.